Jeremiah 8

"At that time," declares Yahweh, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Judah from their graves. And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground. And death will be preferred to life by all the remaining of this evil clan in all the remaining places where I have driven them away," declares Yahweh.

"And you shall say to them, ‘Thus asks Yahweh:

"Do men fall and not stand up?If one turns away does he not return?Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in enduring apostasy?They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.I have listened attentively,and I have listened.They do not speak honestly,there is no man who regrets his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’All of them are turning to their ways of running,like a horse plunging into battle.Even the stork in heaven knows its appointed time,and the turtledove, and the swallow, and the song bird,they observe the time of their coming.But my people do not know the ordinance of Yahweh.How can you say, ‘We are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us’?Look, surely the lying stylus of the scribes has made it a lie.The wise will be put to shame,they will be dismayed,and they will get taken.Look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh,and what is wisdom to them?Therefore I will give their wives to others,their fields to conquerors,because from the smallest to the greatest,all of them make profit for unlawful gain,from prophet to priest,all of them practice deceit.And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly,saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing?What’s worse, they were not ashamed at all,and they did not know to feel humiliated.Therefore they will fall among those who fall;at the time of their punishment they will stumble," says Yahweh."I will take away their harvest," declares Yahweh."There are no grapes on the vine,and there are no figs on the fig tree,and the leaves wither,and what I gave to them passed over them."’"

Why are we sitting?Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities,and let us perish there,for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish,and has provided drink for us, water of poison,because we have sinned against Yahweh.We hope for peace,but there is no good,for a time of healing,but there is terror."From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses,from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes,for they come and devour the land,and that which fills the city,and those who live in it.For look, I am letting loose among you snakes,adders for which there is no incantation,and they will bite you," declares Yahweh."My comfort is gone from me,sorrow is on me,my heart is sick.Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my peoplefrom a distant land,‘Is Yahweh not in Zion?Is her king not in her?’Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,with idols of a foreign land?"The harvest has passed,the summer has come to an end,and we have not received help.

"Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down,I mourn, horror has seized me.Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no healer there?Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Jeremiah 9

Oh that my head were waters,and my eyes a fountain of tears,so that I might weep day and night,for the slain of the daughter of my people.Oh that I had in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers,that I may leave my people and go from them,for all of them are adulterers,a band of traitors.And they bend their tongue like their bow,for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land,for they go forth from evil to evil,and they do not know me," declares Yahweh.

"Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor,and you must not trust in any brother,for everyone surely betrays,and every neighbor goes about with slander.And everyone deceives his neighbor,and they do not speak the truth,they have taught their tongues to speak lies,they are tired from going astray.Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit,upon deceit they refuse to know me," declares Yahweh.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts:

"Look, I am about to refine them,and I will test them,for what else can I do,because of the presence of the daughter of my people?Their tongue is a murderous arrow,it speaks deceit.With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor,but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush.Because of these things shall I not punish them?" declares Yahweh,"On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge?For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing,and for the pastures of the desert a lament,because they are laid waste so that no man passes through.And the sounds of cattle are not heard,from the birds of heaven to the animalsthey have fled, they are gone.And I will make Jerusalem as heaps of ruins, a lair of jackals,and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitants.Who is the wise man that can understand this?And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it?Why is the land destroyed?It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through."

And Yahweh said, "Because of their forsaking my law that I set before them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it, but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors taught them." Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I am feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison, and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors, and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end."

Thus says Yahweh of hosts:

"Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come,and for the skillful women, so that they come.And let them hasten,and let them lift up wailing over us,so that our eyes may melt with tears,and our eyelids may flow with water.For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion,‘How we are devastated!We are very ashamed because we have left the land,because they have overthrown our dwelling places.’For hear, O women, the word of Yahweh,and let your ear receive the word of his mouth,and teach your daughters a lamentation,and each woman her neighbor a lament.For death has come into our windows,it has entered into our fortresses,to cut off the children from the streets,the young men from the public squares.

Speak, ‘thus declares Yahweh:

"The dead body of the human will falllike dung upon the surface of the field,and like cut grain behind the reaper,and there is no one who gathers."’"

Thus says Yahweh,

"The wise man must not boast in his wisdom,and the warrior must not boast in his might,the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.But only in this must the one who boasts boast,that he has insight,and that he knows me,that I am Yahweh,showing loyal love, justice, and righteousness on the earth,for in these things I delight," declares Yahweh.

"Look, days are coming," declares Yahweh, "and I will call into account all those who are circumcised in the foreskin: Egypt, Judah, and Edom, and the Ammonites, and Moab, and all those who are trimmed to the side, those who live in the desert, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."

Jeremiah 10

Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says Yahweh:

"You must not learn the way of the nations,and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens,for the nations are dismayed by them.For the statutes of the peoples are vanity,for it is a tree cut down from the forest,the work of the hands of a craftsman with the tool.He decorates it with silver and gold,they strengthen it with nails and hammers,so that it does not stagger.They are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,they cannot speak.Indeed, they must be carried,for they cannot march.You must not be afraid of them,for they cannot do evil;furthermore, to do good is not in them."There is none like you, O Yahweh,you are great and your name is great in might.Who would not revere you, O king of the nations?For you it is fitting.For among all the wise men of the nations,and in all their kingdoms,there is none like you.At the same time they are stupid and foolish,in the instruction of idols, it is wood.Silver beaten from Tarshish is brought,and gold from Uphaz,the work of the craftsman and the hands of the goldsmith.Blue and purple are their clothing,all of them are the work of skillful people.But Yahweh is the true God,he is the living God,and an everlasting king.Because of his wrath the earth quakes,and the nations cannot endure his anger.

"Thus you shall say to them,

‘Gods who did not make the heavens and the earthwill perish from the earth and from under these heavens.He is the maker of the earth by his power,who created the world by his wisdom,and by his understanding he stretched out heaven.When he utters his voicethere is a noise of water in the heavens,and he causes the mist to rise from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,and he causes the wind to go out from his storehouses.Everyone is stupid, without knowledge,every goldsmith is ashamed by his divine image,for his cast image is an illusion,and there is no breath in them.They are vanity, a work of mockery,at the time of their punishment, they will perish.The portion of Jacob is not like these,for he is the creator of everything,and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance,Yahweh of hosts is his name.Gather your bundle from the ground,you who live under the siege.’"

For thus says Yahweh,

"Look, I am about to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,and I will bring distress to them, so that they may feel it."

Woe to me, because of my wound.My wound is incurable.But I said, "Surely this is my sickness,and I must bear it."My tent is devastated,and all my tent cords are torn.My children have gone out from me,and they are not.There is no one who pitches my tent again,or one who puts up my tent curtains.For the shepherds have become stupid,they do not seek Yahweh.Therefore they do not have insight,and all of their flock are scattered.Listen, news:Look, it is coming,a great roar from the land of the north,to make the cities of Judah a desolation,a lair of jackals.I know, O Yahweh, that to the human is not his own way,nor to a person is the walking and the directing of his own step.Chastise me, O Yahweh, but in moderation,not in your anger, lest you eradicate me.Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,and on the peoples that do not call on your name,for they have devoured Jacob,they have devoured and consumed him,and they have caused his settlement to be desolate.

2 Corinthians 11

I wish that you would put up with me in something a little foolish—but indeed you are putting up with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present youas a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of devotion to Christ. For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough! For I consider myself in no way to be inferior to the preeminent apostles. But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; certainly in everything we have made this clear to you in every way. Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself in order that you may be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you without payment? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them for the ministry to you. And when I was present with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will keep myself from being a burden. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! But what I am doing, I will also do, in order that I may remove the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, that they may be found just as also we are in what they are boasting about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not a great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Again I say, do not let anyone think I am foolish. But indeed, if you do, accept me even as foolish, in order that I also may boast a little. What I am saying in this project of boasting, I am not saying as the Lord would say, but as in foolishness. Since many are boasting according to human standards, I also will boast. For because you are wise, you put up with foolish people gladly! For you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is presumptious toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. I say this to my shame, namely, that we have been weak.

But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am speaking in foolishness—I also dare to boast. Are they Hebrews? I am also! Are they Israelites? I am also! Are they descendants of Abraham? I am also! Are they servants of Christ?—I am speaking as though I were beside myself—I am more so, with far greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with beatings to a much greater degree, in danger of death many times. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have spent in the deep water. I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own people, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers because of false brothers, with toil and hardship, often in sleepless nights, with hunger and thirst, often going hungry, in cold and poorly clothed. Apart from these external things, there is the pressure on me every day of the anxiety about all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to sin, and I do not burn with indignation? If it is necessary to boast, I will boast aboutthe things related to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to take me into custody, and I was lowered through a window through the wall in a rope-basket, and I escaped his hands.